Thursday, June 30, 2005

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite yard sale finds from a few years ago. I found these vintage, 3D plaster plaques in the basement of a moving/yard sale. It was the second day so they were half price. I paid a whopping $1 for them. They are meant to be hung on the wall, staggered, with a straw connecting the two . I put them on eBay for $9.99 and the bids went to over $57. A soda-pop memorabilia collector from Ohio bought it and he was thrilled when he received them. It was so exciting to watch the bids jump in the final minutes of eBay. The colors don't show up well in this picture. The frames were an aged-crackled cobalt blue. This picture was taken from a camcorder, before my digital camera days.

We went to see War of the Worlds last night at Tinseltown. There was a good crowd. The movie was pretty good, some parts were excellent and others were a bit slow. I just love that little girl actress, Dakota Fanning. She's been in lots of movies and she is just a fantastic actress. What spoiled the movie for me was the kid sitting next to us. Out of about 2,000 people at Tinseltown last night, an "out of control", problem teenager had to sit next to us. I wanted to move but the seats that were left were down in the front and the last time I sat there I had a stiff neck for the next 2 days. Right in the middle of the really scary parts, this kids starts hyena laughing and pounding with his fist the armrest and stomping the floor. He'd talk loudly to himself. It is too bad that everyone around us had to put up with that stuff. There just aren't enough good movies out there and then one comes along and it gets spoiled. Thumbs up to the movie and thumbs down to the disruption. As usual with top movies, the movie site, http://www.waroftheworlds.com/ is really interesting, check it out.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Conventions, family-style. I love the conventions my husband goes to. They encourage families to come and they organize family outings. This time, being we were in Orlando, they organized Disney outings. They hand you everything you need, you hop on their bus and go. We had hors d'oeuvre and desserts by the Disney staff at Epcot and we were then turned loose to explore. Then, after the "Illuminations" presentation (fireworks at 9:00 PM) they closed the new ride called "Soaring" and opened it just for us. What a fun ride! It is like Imax but with seats that move and lift you up and down. Wind blows at you and you feel like you are really paragliding. It "glides" over California. You feel like you could kick that guy in the canoe with your foot as you go over him. It is so realistic, I tried. I wished this ride could have lasted longer. My husband and I went on our own to Disney World's Magic Kingdom the last full day we were there. The lines are pretty long but you don't notice it that much, there is so much to look at. The parade and fireworks in the evening were some of the highlights. The murals in the castle were awesome. They are made from glass and ceramic tiles about 1/2 inch square. Everything was extremely clean even with thousands of people there. Here is a picture of one of the beautiful murals that are in the castle.

Monday, June 27, 2005

The Ritz Carlton,Grande Lakes in Orlando, Fl is every bit a palace. Total luxury. What is a girl like me doing in a place like this with its golf course, spas, down-filled mattress covers and people catering to my every need? Better yet, who are all these other people here? Are they really the rich or are they expense-account people putting on an air as to try and fit in by talking ever-so-softly and blotting so elegantly the corners of their mouths with their napkins? I'm here as a tag-along with my husband who is at a convention, though I'm not included in the expense account. So when I take off on my own to get breakfast and the check comes to over $20 for 3 small links of sausage and a few pancakes, it is easy to tell by my wide eyes that I'm neither rich nor on an expense account. I guess I should have asked ahead of time how much everything was, as I was given a menu without prices, so I thought. But under the sausage was a tiny 11. No dollar sign, no 11.00 or anything that would give me a clue that sausage could possible be 11 (dollars), I mean, it couldn't mean $11.00 for 3 small links of sausage. I thought it meant, like, I'll have the number 11, please. Or for pancakes, I'll take the number 8. I met my husband during his break. I told him about my $20 (plus tip) breakfast for one. Thankfully, he laughed and I'm looking for a Denny's. View from our room.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

I was trying my best to come up with some way to move that slab of cement, called a trough, to the back of my garden. I called my husband over to take a look at the finished product as it lay, in all its glory, plastic still attached in some places. I think he failed to understand the whole concept of my trough garden. But being he is always supportive of my "projects", he gave me encouragement and offered to carry that thing to its final resting place. I better be right the first time as to where I wanted this thing put because I knew that once he picked it up it was going to be the last time. So I showed him where I wanted it and to my surprise with a heave, ho he awkwardly and in a somewhat running pace managed to carry that thing to its place. With a slight bang it landed, forever gracing my garden. With a "thank you, honey!" I ran and got the "distressing tools" which included a hammer, wire brush and chisel. I did my best to remove the left over plastic and make it look "old" and not like a box lined with a shower curtain. I added soil and plants and voila!....a somewhat funny looking trough at the end of my garden. We now sit out in the evening and look out over our minute yard and comment on how very nice the trough will look someday...like when the nasturtiums drape over the sides and hide it. Right now it looks somewhat like a cradle but it is interesting and it gives my garden some vertical height.Trough/Sink Gardens, part 3 (pic)To Be Continued...with the recipe and some helpful hints I've learned since and some updated pictures as the flowers grow.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Making Trough or Sink Gardens, part 2All is well that ends well, too bad it didn't.

I'm suppose to wait 5 days before I unwrap the troughs. Of course, I barely waited 3 days to unwrap the smaller ones and plant flowers in them.

They were a bit crumbly, which is what I kind of expected given my ingredients and impatience. As the days wore on, though, they got harder and now are like porous rocks. I left the big one, which is about 24 inches by 18 inches by 12 inches, wrapped in the garage. I knew it would be heavier than the others. Well, because of the hot weather we had I didn't bother with unwrapping it early. In fact, I went over the time by about 5 days and had a huge, hard cement box in my garage that I couldn't budge. I should have formed it in the garden, very close to where I wanted it permanently. I finally got smart and took a web come-a-long and dragged the box out inch by inch. Because I let it harden so much, I can't get the plastic to pull out of the sides, more work ahead. It is still sitting where I left it, near the gate to the backyard. I'm not sure what engineering feat will be required to mount that thing up onto the rock base I made for it. I'll think about that tomorrow.

Making Trough or Sink Gardens, part 1Those Darned Home Improvement Show Series

A couple of weeks ago I saw someone on DIY make a cement trough for the garden. As soon as I saw it I knew, I wanted that! This is what they are supposed to look like.

I went online and got the directions and talked my husband into taking me to the home improvement store for portland cement, peat moss and vermiculite. It took two stores before we found vermiculite. Unfortunately, when I got home I realized that the recipe didn't call for vermiculite, it called for perlite (I could have sworn they said vermiculite). "Oh, its the same difference," I told my husband trying to save face. I went ahead with the recipe as if I had the correct ingredients. I mixed 3 parts vermiculite, 3 parts peat moss, and 2 parts cement. I slowly added water and mixed until it was still thick enough that I could form a softball-sized clump and toss it slightly up in my hand and it didn't fall apart, per the instructions. Getting to that point is another story.

1. When measuring the peat moss, do you pack it in the container tightly or leave it loose? That wasn't on the directions.2. No one told me that when you scoop cement into a can that even though the can looks full, the bottom is half full of trapped air so I probably didn't have the correct amount in there. That stuff is like silt, it is so fine.3. The show hosts mentioned that you may want a friend to help you in the mixing of the cement. I didn't heed their warning. My arms were ready to fall off. They were trembling and like rubber. I was sweating profusely mixing it and the powder from the cement stuck to my sweat. When I came into the house and walked past the mirror I scared myself.To Be Continued....

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Saturday my husband and I ventured through the Saegertown, Meadville, Franklin and Titusville areas looking through antique shops and yard sales. We didn't find anything this time but we did find one of what I think is the best restaurants around. It is called the Four Sons Restaurant and Brewery in Titusville. The food was more than outstanding. We had some of the best stuffed mushrooms we've ever had. My husband ordered something called steak and mushrooms over salad and he ate every last bite saying it was really, really good. I had a hamburger as I most always do when we go out and it was top rate. The fries are as good as they get, too. Even the coffee I ordered was perfect.

Titusville, A Treasure of Old Houses

Our whole area is full of beautiful old houses. I came across some exceptional ones in Titusville. I had to stop and get a picture of one that I surely wish I could have. After I took the picture, we drove around and saw a "For Sale" sign on it....if only...Dining Treasure

Flyfishing Fun

The biggest treasure of the day was finding a new fishing hole on Oil Creek. We usually fish the Petroleum Center area but we heard from a very reliable source that most of the trout have moved down to the big river but there are some holding in the deepest cooler holes. He said the cooler few days before may have brought some of them back. We headed upstream to the museum area at Drakes Well and had such fun fishing a new area for us. We started flyfishing around 5:30 PM and the trout were already feeding on the surface. The fish were much smaller than the ones we caught earlier in the year but we still had just as much fun. I caught 5 and lost 2 times that many during the evening. My husband caught 6 and had a very large brown on but didn't quite get 'em in. (We catch and release.) The area is artificial lures only.

Friday, June 17, 2005

We have several neighbors that are creatures of habit. Same thing, same time every day, you can set your clocks by them. What makes them like that? Are we the odd ones? Maybe we are just unorganized, winging it through life. Should I be envious of them, to know ahead of time what tomorrow brings? I think it would take too much effort, I think I like surprises.

Another Big One?

Four earthquakes in California this week. I'm guessing the BIG one could be coming. That worries me as most of my family live there. My sister lives right on the ocean beach in southern California and when the tsunami warnings were issued I worried a little bit. Earthquakes are the norm there. The Loma Prieta earthquake that hit the bay area and postponed the World Series was really something, though. I was walking through my house and saw the chandelier really swaying and then walked into the bedroom. The waterbed was sloshing back and forth. I was trying to make sense of it, did the cat jump from the bed, run out and jump up on the couch and bounce off the chandelier? How could he do that? Then I saw through the window the swimming pool water rising and falling that made the water look like a donut with a hole. The World Series went off the air. Finally it dawned on me, an earthquake. I saw it but I didn't feel a thing. Weird. But I was about 100 miles away from the center of the quake. My brother was visiting a friend in San Jose, very near the center, and they ran out the apartment and almost fell off the stairs that were swaying back and fourth 3 feet in each direction. He's a pretty tough guy but he was scared. So here is another great reason to live in Erie.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Yesterday I added to my garden the last two perennials (I think I planted about 50 in all), sprinkled a few packs of wildflower seeds to fill in and added a couple of bags of bark and several bags of river stones and gravel. Then I wired up my landscape lighting and was pretty satisfied and considered myself finished except for some big rocks to put here and there and a stone bench. I sent an email to my family out west bragging about the garden I planted and actually lauded it as a woodland, cottage garden and that I'd send them pictures today. I took my camera to the back door and took a good look at my garden. I guess I've been seeing it through rose-colored glasses. I saw it as it will be when the plants fill out (you know, a visionary). In a picture it is going to look like a bunch of weeds. Plus, I still have a mound of the dead grass sod that I had dug out that is just off to the side. It was too heavy to put out in the garbage all at once. Then there is the issue of the grass along the side of the garden that has grown to about 6 inches. I have to dig that out and put in the blue stone. Our yard isn't much bigger than one you'd find as a back patio in a condo and pictures seem to make things look even smaller (have you ever caught a huge fish and somehow the pictures make it look half its size?) Perhaps one of those Photo Shop-like programs is called for in this situation, just to enhance it to how I envision it.

Peanut Gallery

The mail-order package that I have been anticipating for weeks finally came last week. It has been sitting just inside our front door for a week. I know what is in it, it is all the shellac and Waterlox that I need to continue restoring my house. Because I have been busy with my garden I haven't done a lick of work inside the house. It isn't that I dread refinishing the floors and woodwork as the reason I haven't opened the box yet, it is what to do with all those peanut-packing things. They get all over the place when you get your stuff out of the box. I have bought quite a number of things on eBay and other sale sites over the years and at first I saved all the boxes and packing materials that came with them, just in case I needed to send a package. But now the attic is filled with boxes with styrofoam peanuts. Getting rid of these styrofoam things are a pain, they static stick to everything, and you never can get them all out of the box, there are always some hiding. As many people that buy on eBay, the peanut-packing-filled attics are bound to become a national crisis.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

There is a war going on and it doesn't have anything to do with the Middle East. It is a war within my mind as to which of the home improvement stores I saw a particular item in. I often scour Home Depot or Lowes for things I need and the things I wish I could have. I saw the perfect chandelier not long ago and wanted my husband to see it. I was sure it was at Home Depot. We got there and the moment I'm in the store that terrible feeling of being wrong again hits me. My husband had already started down an isle when he realized I'm not following. He looks back and he sees that look again. Back in the car to the other store. This happens all the time with both stores. I returned an item with the receipt and went to the wrong store. I saw the look on the clerks face, somewhat amused that I was trying to return a Lowes item with a Lowe's receipt to Home Depot. But she made me feel better when she said it happens a lot. Well, I'm not the only one then. I've taken to writing it down, lately, because it is too time consuming to be running back and forth. I actually don't feel it is my fault anymore. They shouldn't put two home improvement stores one parking lot away from each other.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Gettysburg's New Slogan?What Happens in Gettysburg, Stays in Gettysburg?

Beautiful Gettysburg, almost pristine if you overlook Picketts Charge Buffet and Jennie Wade's House Museum, Jennie being the only civilian killed at Gettysburg. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette there are plans to build a glitzy gambling palace and health spa not far from Gettysburg. Clearly these are greedy people who haven't spent any "real" time in the park. It is so very humbling to spend time there, people talk in hushed voices, it is sacred ground. I'm sure these developers are telling people in the area it will be good for them, bring them jobs. Why not bring in a circus while we are at it? Maybe dress up a bear to look like Abe Lincoln. The blood spilled on that battlefield came from many states and that battlefield belongs to all of us, not just those who need jobs in Gettsyburg. Those developers are making a mockery out of a vital part of our history, trading history for money. I hope preservationists get the support they need to fight this. It will take a lot of resources to buy up this property in order to protect it.

Beautiful Gettysburg, taken on a recent vacation.

MP3 Player

My husband took me to Best Buy a few weeks ago and surprised me by saying, "Pick out any MP3 player you want." Wow! I wasn't going to hesitate long. Except that I didn't know anything about MP3 players. I've heard them advertised and such but I didn't have a clue to how to use one. The pressure was on. I wanted to pick out a really good one but I didn't want to appear too greedy. I spotted the Ipods..oh, so much money. Then there was the really cheap ones, no, he did say any one I wanted. I ended up picking out a SanDisk, 1 G with voice recorder, FM tuner and can hold 16+ hours of MP3 music pleasure, or 32 hours of WMA. I made the right choice for what I use it for. I have it with me almost constantly and I often leave myself reminders on the voice recorder. The radio works really well. I found the greatest use is audio books. I joined an audio book club online and just download them. The SanDisk bookmarks where you left off when you turn it off which is a good feature for listening to books. And of course, I put several of my favorite blues songs on it. It sure makes working much more pleasurable. It is the size of a slim cigarette lighter and takes a AAA battery. The only negative I could come up with is, when the battery starts getting a bit low, it tends to shut off when switching modes.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Yesterday, my husband and I took a drive in the country. I loved the countryside in NW PA in the spring and summer. We drove through Corry (nice little town!) and was headed for Warren. I just loved Warren the last time we went through there. It still has so much of its old-time character. But we didn't end up that far.

Treasure Hunt Comes Out of Nowhere

Antique Shop

We came across an antique shop , in the middle of nowhere, on the corner of Rt 6 and Rt 958 in a tiny community called Wrightsville. It was called White Swan Antiques and Country Store. What a neat store! We didn't see anything we were looking for that was in our price range but thoroughly enjoyed going through it. We left and went up some back roads and then turned around and noticed a yard sale sign just a block up the street from the antique store. There were 3 men out there manning it and what characters they were! We really enjoyed them sharing the history of their 1840's house and some of the stories about the things they found in that old Victorian house. They even found a headstone between the walls!. We left with a small table I'm going to use in my garden $5, an old Queen Anne ottoman I'm going to refinish and reupholster $3 , a spokeshave $2 that I hope I can put a new edge on, and a crystal chandelier $5.

Queen Anne Ottoman

crystal chandelier

Corry, Nice Little Town

We finished the day off with a stop at the covered "Kissing Bridge" and stopped in Corry at the Library Bar and Grill for a mid afternoon "dinner". My hamburger was delicious. Kissing Bridge

Sahara

Can't stay in a hot house so we went to the $1 movie and saw, Sahara. I'm a real Civil War nut and I heard it has something to do with the Civil War. But it doesn't, really. I started to enjoy the movie once I got past the sillyness of it. Just let it be what it is, an action, adventure that couldn't possibly be real. The stunts were down right silly but it was fun, anyways. You just can't take it seriously.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

What a shock the first time we saw the land south of the mall stripped of its trees. I don't think I'll ever get used to it. That song "Big Yellow Taxi" Joni Mitchell, comes to mind with the lyrics: "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." The next generation will remember the new buildings going up there as always being there. And they will get shocked when some nice wooded areas are taken away from them. And so it goes, 'till it's gone.

They Mock Us

Trust me when I say the people out west are mocking us. They see on their news channels that we are in a heat wave with 90 degree day and people trying to find relief.. They are saying, "What pansies! Ooooohhh, 90 degrees, big hairy deal." That is because 90 is nothing out there. It isn't hot until it hits 105. Then you'd be able to complain. I was one of those people. Not anymore. We just didn't know first hand about the "humidity" factor. I never suffered from heat until I came here. Forgive them for they know not of what they jest.

Perfect Evening

Yesterday evening I sat out on the deck and did nothing but drink a Snapple and eat a couple of cookies. I really enjoyed watching the robins pulling up worms from the recently over-turned soil and see the baby chipmunks brave their way too close to me in order to get some last-chance-of- the-day bird seed. The evening had a good breeze and was such a relief from the day's heat. My thought was, "what a great night this would have been to go see a SeaWolves game." I have only seen 2 of them since I've been here. I'm making it a point on the next perfect evening to go see one.

Friday, June 10, 2005

Am I Lucky or What?I have a 3/ 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch block of wood that has a leaf painted on one side. My mother-in-law spotted the block of wood near a tree near Niagra Falls a few years ago when we came to this area for a visit. On the back is a label that says it is by the artist Carol Ann Newsome and says, “You have just turned over a New Leaf. You may keep this New Leaf. Turn it over as often as you wish.” When we got home we looked it up on the internet. She is an artist that has left 4,000 of these blocks of wood around the world with help from volunteers. (I don't know if she is still active in this venture.) We have one of only about 4,000 in the world as far as my research can turn up. It gets passed around in our family every time someone has a change in their life. You never know when you may get it back wrapped as a gift. I wonder how much it would bring on eBay?Back of New Leaf Front of New Leaf

I Didn't Know That

I sent an email picture of my garden to one of my sisters. She replied that she saw Nasturtiums in the photo and said they are edible but I probably knew that. No, I didn't. Before I decide to make a meal of them I decided to do a little research. I found several sites that offered advice on getting rid of rabbits. Plant Nasturtiums, rabbits hate Nasturtiums. Hmmm....that doesn't make me want to eat them if rabbits hate them. Then I found sites on caring for rabbits. They said to feed rabbits the flowers and leaves of Nasturtiums because they love them. Well, which is it? I used to raise Netherland Dwarfs and I trust rabbits. I have a sensitive stomach, so I need to find out which it is. I'll have to weed through all the misinformation before I save a buck on lettuce.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

My husband and I went to see Cinderella Man last night. I needed an escape from this humid heat. It is a great movie. I’d say on the order of Sea Biscuit. I don’t care for so many fight scenes but after all that is what the movie is about. The one line that stood out to me was when the reporters asked him why he was going to fight again and he replied, “for milk”.

Will I Swear?

That wonderful little mister I have counted on to help me keep cool has clogged. The hole is so small, nothing will fit into it so I can clean it. The directions said to “simply remove nozzle with an ordinary pair of pliers and soak overnight to remove debris”. I tugged and twisted, it wouldn’t come off and I almost swore and I don’t swear (but I can’t guarantee that will be the case by the end of this hot summer.)

Terrorists in Lodi, CA?

What? My old stomping grounds contain terrorists? I used to shop at the Walmart the next road up from the searched “suspected” terrorist’s house. My longing to return to that beautiful, quiet area has been “paused”. Ok, you can hit the play button again. A few terrorists don’t change how wonderful the area is, just a short drive to the ocean, Yosemite, Mammoth, Tahoe and Reno.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Wrong Again, NaturallyOne shovel into the grass and I realized I bit off more than I could chew. Yesterday I said our yard was too small to rent the sod machine. I was wrong, a yard is never to small to get the “machine”. Those grass/weed roots have had 100 years to create a nice weave. The mister was great for keeping me cool but I’m looking at a good 3 more days to remove this grass with a shovel, but hey, that’s part of the fun, right?

Car Chase in CaliforniaLuckily, during my many, mucho breaks from digging up my yard, I was entertained by “live” coverage of a car chase of a suspected would-be kidnapper. I watched the whole thing unfold on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, but wouldn’t you know after watching all day, I missed the ending?

HostageWhich reminds me of the $1 movie we saw last week. What better way to spend a hot day than to sit in the $1 theater? And to think, after the $2 for entry and $8 for popcorn and a drink (we share), we got entertained for only $10. The movie, “Hostage”, has its big holes and problems but I actually was very entertained by it and I’m pretty critical of movies. I hate it when we waste our time and money on junk movies.

Nice PeopleI read about Bettis at the Edinboro Auction and Caryn Kadavy in the Golf Buddy section this morning in the Erie Times News. There seems to be at least two nice people left in the professional sporting world.GoogleI went to the Google page and was stumped to what the heck that picture is suppose to be, I thought it was building blocks (Kindergarden Day? There is a day designated for just about everything). I just figured out the rendition of the word Google on the Google search page. It is Falling Water and other buildings built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Today is his birthday.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

In the attic I came across some old bottles my mother dug up decades ago at a gold mine site in California. She saved them all those years and after she died, they went where ever I went. I decided to put them to use. I happened to be arranging a small saucer rock garden and thought they would add a nice touch so I buried them and exposed the tops through the soil at different heights.Picture of glass andbottle rock garden.

-------I realized, about 2 weeks ago, that I should have started my garden plants indoors. I am just now seeing the sprouts popping through the soil from the seeds I planted. Gee, it will be fall before the plants are a decent size. This is quite the adjustment in gardening. I'm from California where you get about 9 months to grow your garden. After living here almost 6 years you'd think I'd realize this is the norm here. You get 3 months to grow things if it is a good year. I'm eyeballing a spot in the basement to turn into my plant nursery so I can get a head start.------I just reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP. My registry was a mess and I was tired of the errors. I had all the software and I backed up my files to a CD disk. I checked out several website that gave instructions. I took pictures with my digital camera of all the settings and files I thought I may need and loaded them onto my laptop. Then I set my laptop next to my main computer and after several hours and updates later I can proudly say, "I did it!" (with a few minor but frustrating problems.)-------This humidity is more than I can take. I said that a few years ago and bought a mister to put on the end of my hose for when I'm outside doing gardening. Well, it has been in the junk drawer for those few years and today I'm hooking it up. I'm digging out a good area of grass to plant a cottage-style garden. It is too small an area to rent a sod digger upper machine but big enough that I expect a sunburn when I'm through.